Muslim teens not exempt from swim lessons

Integration of foreigners is more important than their religious beliefs, Switzerland’s highest court ruled on Friday. The court denied a 14-year-old girl from a strict Muslim family in Aargau the right to dispensation from school swim class.

The family argued that their strict religion prevented the girl from taking part in swimming lessons, where she would be seen by her male teacher and possibly other men. The girl already knew how to swim, having attended a private class strictly for Muslim girls, they added. [swissinfo.ch] Read more

Tunisian Muslim cleric: "Our goal is to instate the shari'a, and regain Andalusia and Jerusalem," and conquer Rome

"This is the age of the Muslims. Gone are the days of secularists and of democracy." Zarouq apparently thinks that Islam and democracy are incompatible. He must be some kind of Islamophobe.

"Tunisian Salafist Kamel Zarouq Talks about Future Conquest of Andalusia, Rome, and Jerusalem," from MEMRI, April 30: [Jihad Watch] Read more

If only Hitler had finished them off

A small excerpt from an anti-Semitic rant by IUMS member Tareq Hawwas on Al-Quds TV (Lebanon):

They are the most miserly of all the peoples. Wickedness, trickery, and deception are engrained within them. The Jews – with only few exceptions – have a natural disposition toward treachery. The Jews think nothing of violating treaties. They have no respect for them.

What has happened in Palestine from the beginning and to this day shows us that the Jews have never respected, for a single day, any international agreement or treaty that they signed. [Mick Hartley] Read more

Coptic schoolteacher detained for 'insulting' Islam in Egypt's Luxor

Public prosecutors in the Upper Egyptian Luxor governorate on Thursday ordered the detention of a Coptic-Christian schoolteacher for four days pending investigation on charges that she had insulted the Islamic faith.

Demyana Emad, a 23-year old social studies teacher, was charged with insulting Islam and the Prophet Mohamed at a primary school in south Luxor, state news agency MENA reported on Thursday.

The complaint was first filed in April when the head of the parents association at the Sheikh Sultan Primary School lodged a complaint with the Luxor Educational Directorate. [Aswat Masriya] Read more

Muslims Do Not Come To America to Accept Our Way of Life

.... a Muslim woman in Tulsa, Oklahoma wants a local bank to make Muslims exempt from their "no hats, no hoods" policy. According to the policy, anyone who doesn't want to remove their head covering must be escorted to and from the teller; even a cancer patient wearing a head scarf.

Now I think that's a wise and appropriate policy considering that bank robbers have been using burqas to both cover their faces and to hide weapons, see my article Philly Cop Killed: Time to Ban the Burqa. However, CAIR wants to make religious headgear exempt from the ban on hats and hoods. What's the point of that? If religious headgear is exempt, then a bank robber will simply use a burqa instead of a ski mask to rob the bank

CAIR doesn't care about the safety of infidels or the bank, as long as Muslims get their way. Cancer patients have to be escorted to a teller, but Muslims feel that since Islam is supreme, exceptions must be made to accommodate them. [Planck's Constant] Read more

We need answers to the doubts and distrust raised by call for sharia law

.... Some men are choosing not to marry through the civil law process, because it makes divorce simpler and does not enable a woman rightly to claim her share of the assets at the time of divorce.

There is also an opportunity for men to marry a second wife, because the first sharia marriage is not recognised in law.

We have to ensure that the rights of women are protected. I therefore concur with Inspire’s call that all sharia marriages be simultaneously registered as civil marriages, thus offering much-needed protection to women.

I believe that, sadly, the word ‘sharia’ has more negative connotations than positive images in our country. Only by exploring why will we begin to address those concerns. [Yorkshire Post] Read more

Halal meat withdrawn from 18 schools in Luton

Halal meat has been taken off the menu at 18 schools in Luton after concerns were raised by Muslim groups.

Luton Borough Council, which has served the meat in schools for 15 years, said it had suspended the service while it looked into how the meat was certified.

The decision followed a meeting with Luton Council of Mosques and Sunni Council of Mosques.

A council spokesperson said it did not relate to the "safety of the food or whether it has been contaminated".

Children at the schools affected by the decision, which was made at the end of April, are being served vegetarian meals while the checks are being made. [BBC] Read more

Muslim cleric condemns violence in Islam's name, is declared an apostate and threatened with death

From modern, moderate Morocco comes yet another example of why we don't see more sincere Muslim reformers. Ahmed Assid said: "To call [upon people] to follow Islam by the use of violence and constraint is an act of terrorism." For that, he has been condemned, declared a non-Muslim, and threatened with death.

Now wait a minute. We're constantly told that the overwhelming majority of Muslims condemn violence and terror and abhor the violence done in Islam's name. So why isn't Ahmed Assid celebrated as a hero, instead of fearing for his life? [Jihad Watch] Read more

The mass exodus of Christians from the Muslim world

A mass exodus of Christians is currently underway. Millions of Christians are being displaced from one end of the Islamic world to the other.

We are reliving the true history of how the Islamic world, much of which prior to the Islamic conquests was almost entirely Christian, came into being.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom recently said: “The flight of Christians out of the region is unprecedented and it’s increasing year by year.” In our lifetime alone “Christians might disappear altogether from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Egypt.” [FOX News Network] Read more

‘Un-Islamic democracy’: The other election campaigning

While the major political parties have ramped up their electioneering as polling day fast approaches, at the same time a raft of smaller groups, most of them religious, have stepped up campaigns calling for the scrapping of democracy and elections altogether.

These campaigns appear in pamphlets and banners and backs of rickshaws. Some call democracy un-Islamic and demand a caliphate, while others decry elections as a mechanism controlled by the rich and powerful and devoted exclusively to their benefit. [The Express Tribune News Network] Read more

Battle over blasphemy deepens divisions in Bangladesh

As the death toll rises to at least 38 after Sunday and Monday’s crackdown on Islamist protesters in Bangladesh, an Observer in the capital, who filmed the aftermath of these clashes, explains how divided the country has become.

Following a call by the hard-line Islamic group Hefajat-e-Islam, at least 200,000 people took to the streets of Dhaka to try to pressure the government into adopting strict blasphemy laws, notably the death penalty for bloggers they accuse of insulting the Prophet Muhammad. [France 24] Read more

France struggles to fight radical Islam in its jails

In France, the path to radical Islam often begins with a minor offence that throws a young man into an overcrowded, violent jail and produces a hardened convert ready for jihad.

With the country on heightened security alert since January when French troops began fighting al Qaeda-linked Islamists in Mali, authorities are increasingly worried about home-grown militants emerging from France's own jails. [Reuters] Read more

Norwegians: Outsiders in Their Own Country

.... Every now and then, to be sure, one of the major national newspapers will proffer a brief glimpse of reality. But more often, you have to look elsewhere for it. On April 27, it was the business newspaper Finansavisen, of all publications, that served up a tonic dose of the truth.

Reading the headline, “Life as a Minority,” readers might have expected the usual sob-sister fantasy about how tough it is to be a Muslim in Scandinavia.

But this article was something different. It was a searing portrait of the New Normal in Groruddalen, a huge stretch of East Oslo, where the “minority” in question is Norwegian. [FRONTPAGEMAG.COM] Read more

Sharia in UK: Women Pressured to Stay in Abusive Marriages

.... On its website, the Leyton Sharia Council writes: "Though the Council is not yet legally recognized by the authorities in the UK, the fact that it is already established, and is gradually gaining ground among the Muslim community, and the satisfaction attained by those who seek its ruling, are all preparatory steps towards the final goal of gaining the confidence of the host community in the soundness of the Islamic legal system and the help and insight they could gain from it.

The experience gained by the scholars taking part in its procedures make them more prepared for the eventuality of recognition for Islamic law. [Clarion Project] "Read more

Of the 15 worst violators of religious freedom in the world, 10 are Islamic states

Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Uzbekistan, Egypt, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Vietnam severely restrict religious activities by harassing individuals and groups for their beliefs; therefore they have been classified as "countries of particular concern" in the 2013 report by the Commission on International Religious Freedom.

The Commission is an independent advisory body that monitors abuses of religious freedom by identifying nations such as Egypt — whose transitional government has failed to protect religious minorities, usually Coptic Christians, from Islamic-inspired violence — as "governments that are the most egregious violators."

Muslim-dominated Iraq was cited for tolerating "violent, religiously motivated attacks" and the Islamic Republic of Iran for "prolonged detention, torture, and executions based primarily, or entirely on the religion of the accused." Iran often accuses converts to Christianity of crimes against state security. [Worthy News] Read more

Danish researcher compare religious texts of 10 biggest religions and concludes: Islam is the most violent religion

The religious texts in Islam calls upon its followers to commit terror and conflict to a much higher degree than any other religion, concludes Tina Magaard, who graduated from the Sorbonne in Paris as a PhD in Textual Analysis and Intercultural Communication after a three-year research project that compared the basic texts from 10 religions.

'The texts in Islam are clearly distinct from the other religious texts as they to a much higher degree calls for violence and aggression against followers of other faiths. There are also direct incitements to terror. This has long been a taboo in Islam research, but it is a fact we have to acknowledge,' says Tina Magaard.

Furthermore, the Qur'an contains hundreds of calls to fight against followers of other faiths.

'If it is true that many Muslims view the Qur'an as God's own words that can not be interpreted or rephrased, we have a problem.'" [Islam versus Europe] Read more

62% of Turkish Men Support Wife Beating

A survey of 3500 Turkish men conducted by the University of Kirikkale and the organisation “Happy Children” prove what is anyway a truism in Turkey: of course most Turkish men consider violence against women to be completely normal, sensible and practical.

28 per cent of those polled thought violence against spouses to be indispensable: it was needed to discipline them. 34 per cent were more moderate and thought violence against spouses was only “necessary” “occasionally”. [FRONTPAGEMAG.COM] Read more

Sharia Über Alles

Despite a number of (deliberately?) mitigating biases, both methodological and interpretative, the latest Pew Research Forum report, "The World's Muslims: Religion, Politics and Society," released April 30, 2013, confirms the broad appeal of the totalitarian Sharia, Islam's religio-political "law," across Islamdom

.... Derived from Islam's most important canonical texts -- the Koran and hadith (the canonical collections of the Muslim prophet Muhammad's deeds and pronouncements) -- and their interpretation and codification by Islam's greatest classical legists, Sharia, is not merely holistic, in the general sense of all-encompassing, but totalitarian, regulating everything from the ritual aspects of religion to personal hygiene to the governance of a Muslim minority community or an Islamic state, bloc of states, or global Islamic order. [American Thinker] Read more

"Different and Threatening": Most Germans See Islam as a Threat

More than half of all Germans view Islam as a threat to their country and believe it does not belong in the Western world, according to a major new study on religious attitudes in Germany.

The findings confirm the results of dozens of other surveys, and reflect a growing divide between the views of ordinary Germans and those of Europe's multicultural elites, who, in the quest for "diversity," have been promoting mass immigration from Muslim countries for decades.

The study, entitled, Religion Monitor 2013: Religiousness and Cohesion in Germany (currently available only in German) was produced by the Bertelsmann Foundation, one of the most influential think tanks and lobbying groups in Europe, and a strong proponent of "progressive" causes such as multiculturalism and global governance.

According to the survey -- designed to measure the "most important forms and intensity of the religiosity" of German citizens -- the majority of Germans view Islam as "foreign, different and threatening." [Gatestone Institute] Read more

An Atheist Muslim's Perspective on the 'Root Causes' of Islamist Jihadism and the Politics of Islamophobia

The ambassador answered us that [their right] was founded on the Laws of the Prophet, that it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have answered their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as prisoners, and that every Mussulman who should be slain in battle was sure to go to Paradise.

.... To us, the "root causes" of jihadist terrorism are the same today as they were when Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja said those historic words to Thomas Jefferson. We want to be honest about it so that we can actually do something about it.

For the fast-growing secularist/humanist movement, criticism of religion isn't a demonstration of bigotry but a struggle against it. To us, bigotry against bigotry isn't bigotry, and intolerance of intolerance isn't intolerance. [The Huffington Post] Read more

Polarizing anti-Sharia bill "effectively dead" in the Florida Senate

A polarizing bill designed to prevent the use of Islamic Sharia law in Florida courts appears doomed for the year, after it failed to gain enough support in the Senate on Thursday afternoon.

The bill (HB 351), sponsored in the Senate by Lake County Republican Sen. Alan Hays, fell a single vote short of the two-thirds it needed to overcome a procedural hurdle on the second-to-last day of the annual legislative session. The bill needed the support of 26 senators and 25 voted for it. [Orlando Sentinel] Read more

Muslim Woman Says Her Faith Was Attacked in Court

A Hammond, Ind., woman says she felt she and her Islamic faith were under attack Tuesday night when she declined a request to remove her head scarf during a visit to traffic court.

Yolanda Gray says she has been a Muslim her whole life and began wearing head scarves to signify her devotion to the Islamic religion. Gray said she was confronted about her head scarf once by a security guard at the entrance of City Hall and again by a court officer.

The security guard gave her no problem, she said, but a court officer threatened to make her leave the courtroom if she didn't either show proof of her religion or remove the head scarf. [NBC Chigao] Read more

Sharia councils: unjust, unequal and consequence of failed integration policies

Personally, I wasn't surprised watching the Panorama on 'Secrets of Sharia Councils in the UK' broadcast on the BBC last week. I am aware of these dangerous practices by similar courts adopting the same Islamic constitution elsewhere outside the UK.

However, the main issues to be addressed here aren't only the discriminatory nature and inequality of these councils, but also the broader context of the failed integration polices of the current government. The failure to integrate migrants and refugees and the government's pro-faith agenda has resulted in the demand and justification for such parallel systems to fulfil the needs of those who feel they are 'different'.

There is a common argument that a right to Sharia councils are part of an individual's rights to their own religion and beliefs. It is important here to link the establishment of Sharia councils in the UK with the rise of Islamism internationally. Muslims have lived in the UK and Europe for centuries and didn't need an Islamic court to provide them permission to adopt, worship or practice their religion. [National Secular Society] Read more

Muslims back Islamic law, disagree on meaning

Devotion to Islam shapes the lives of most Muslims but their views on democracy, religious law known as sharia, and family life are varied, a new study finds.

.... However, they don't agree on what sharia means. "There is no monolithic code. … No common understanding from Africa to Asia to the former Soviet Union," said Amaney Jamal, professor of politics at Princeton University and special adviser to Pew for the report.

Indeed, the more experience Muslims had with living with "a narrow, rigid form of sharia," the less supportive they were of it, Jamal said. "In counties that have less experience with (laws ordained by God) you find widespread support," she said.

This may be because their view of the law is "informed by Islamic ideals about social justice and equality and redistribution," not a strict code of what is permissible and what is not. [USA TODAY] Read more

Saudi school to punish female student hugs with therapy, religious education

A Saudi Arabian university has barred female students from hugging each other.

A Saudi Arabian website shared a document allegedly issued by an all female university warning them to not “hug” each other or they would face being transferred to a mental examination by the school.

The document also states that al-Baha University, located in the south of the ultra-conservative Kingdom, will force female students who violate the rule and hug each other to take religious studies all year around, to “amend” their behavior. [Bikya News] Read more